A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Here's a wrap-up of my 30 buildings/places in 30 days: Also see my 30in30 Flickr set .

In thinking about how to complete this series on my urban exploration of New York City this last month, part of me wanted to present something new and rarely seen. At the same time, part of me wanted to present something that's been around a while, something that I know somewhat well. I opted for the latter, presenting here the Storefront for Art and Architecture by Steven Holl and Vito Acconci , which I featured on my weekly page way back in 1999, shortly after I started that page. When I walked by the storefront recently I saw the trademark swinging panels in the closed position. It was Tuesday, so the gallery was supposed to be open, meaning the panels should also be open. Upon opening the entry door stepping inside I discovered why the panels were closed: for the Clip/Stamp/Fold exhibition, the inside surface of this wall was completely covered with a grid of rectangular images, the covers of the magazines on display. Ever since (and probably before) working on a student-ru...

The Lehman College Physical Education Facility (APEX) in the Bronx by Rafael Vinoly was completed in 1994. What started as a conventional facility became a building that defines the college's northern edge and also provides a ceremonial gateway to the campus from this edge. The street elevation of the complex is highly unremarkable, a concrete and glass wall that is more the latter than the former. The only relief comes at the aforementioned gateway opening. Once one moves through this opening to the south side of the building, the building changes character. "The building’s roof, a segmented convex curve, descends almost to the ground." Right of the image above are below-grade tennis courts. At left is the view below. This campus-side elevation could have been extremely overpowering, though the architect skillfully breaks up the expansive roof into sections so that it doesn't appear unrelenting. While it may not "disappear from view" per the architect'...

The Melrose Community Center by Agrest + Gandelsonas in the South Bronx is "primarily geared towards teenagers, providing them with facilities for activities such as athletics, arts and crafts, videos, and computing," according to the architects. The project is composed of two distinct volumes: an ovoid piece containing a gymnasium and a bar piece containing classrooms. Both are linked by the entrance. The above view shows what would be the back of the building, though here it is at its most transparent with the single-loaded corridor of the bar facing the lawn and street beyond. The front door and its hard horizontal and vertical planes shown below is a much different character. This side facing the housing blocks that the community center serves. While the character of the bar building is "two-sided," the ovoid piece is consistent around its perimeter. Staggered aluminum panels sit above a concrete block base. A small window near the entry gives a peek into the g...

Sleepwalkers is a video installation by Doug Aitken that is currently on display (until Feb. 16) on the facades of the Museum of Modern Art in Midtown Manhattan. The images project "the nocturnal journeys of five city inhabitants," played by Tilda Swinton, Donald Sutherland, Chan Marshall (Cat Power), Seu Jorge, and Ryan Donowho. The piece is described as a broken narrative, without beginning or end, where the characters "entwine across the building's surfaces in combinations that change cyclically throughout the course of the evening." On my visit this entwining was apparent as movement was consistent across the different images or stories. Unfortunately it was way too cold to stick around and take in the full cycle. This is not only the first large-scale public artwork in the United States for the artist but also the first artwork to engage MoMA's latest expansion by Yoshio Taniguchi. To fully experience the piece one must...

Back in the early days of these posts I featured two contemporary structures under construction though almost complete. While Nouvel's residential building veers from its context in terms of materials, its size and scale are commensurate with the area. Gehry's building, on the other hand, pops up above its context, almost to signal something new, to call attention to itself. The BLUE Condominium by Bernard Tschumi on Manhattan's Lower East Side is more aligned with Gehry's office building than Nouvel's residential one, as can be seen by the below image. BLUE is not the first high-rise to puncture the low-rise skyline of "Loisada." It's predated by The Hotel on Rivington ( THOR ), a glassy building that angles away from the street as it rises, a common, contemporary response to the city's zoning ordinance. Likewise, Tschumi's design responds to the zoning, though before it tapers towards the top it actually leans out on the south and east si...